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I never thought my knees would go out early, or that I'd have arthritis in most of my joints soon after, in young middle age.
Yeah. That. Arthritis is NOT nice.
I still enjoy camping when I can though. It is just much more difficult to get up from a floor level than a bench level. I never expected to have to deal with these kinds of health issues this ear;y...since age 50. Well, actually, age 47. I could do deep knee bends till then.
I'm personally amazed at how different I feel in my late 40's-early 50's compared to even early 40's...doctors don't tell you the little aches and pains and changes in stamina that can occur. It kind of creeps up on you. You can definitely keep traveling, but no more 18 hour days on the go every minute with something planned in the morning, afternoon, and night.
Now I usually schedule a half or all day or museums/shopping/sightseeing followed by a day on the beach or at the pool...every other day being active is a good mix of getting out with some relaxation too. So essentially, I'm probably only seeing about half or maybe up to 2/3's of what I might have been seeing in my 30's.
You can build up your stamina with daily exercise. Try yoga, swimming, or even walking for an hour a day. Give it six months and I guarantee you will have more stamina and less aches and pains. Movement lubricates joints and the less of it you do, the stiffer and sorer you will be.
We are both in our 50's and both exercise 5-10 hours a week. My other half is a runner--too much impact for me. I practice yoga and powerwalk.
Give it a try. At your age unless you have major underlying health issues you should still have plenty of energy and endurance.
You've received great information here, and I'll add a slightly off topic opinion.
Don't pay cash for the house. There are far better places to invest your money. ESPECIALLY with interest rates at nearly all time lows. I'm not suggesting you **** it away on vacations, but IRA'S, 401k's that are properly invested are beautiful things that can pay for those vacations later. (I retired at 52, btw - abd if you're a frequent visitor around here, you know we still travel frequently. )
You can build up your stamina with daily exercise. Try yoga, swimming, or even walking for an hour a day. Give it six months and I guarantee you will have more stamina and less aches and pains. Movement lubricates joints and the less of it you do, the stiffer and sorer you will be.
We are both in our 50's and both exercise 5-10 hours a week. My other half is a runner--too much impact for me. I practice yoga and powerwalk.
Give it a try. At your age unless you have major underlying health issues you should still have plenty of energy and endurance.
While this is somewhat true, the part about movement is really dependent on your youth, I think.
I used to run, jump, everything when I was a teenager. I was really hard on my lower body because I could be. Squatting over 500 lbs at one point. Thing is, I wasn't doing any of it right. My form was all wrong, and I wasn't warming up correctly.
Fast forward, and I can feel the difference. I still have strength in my lower body, but my knees and ankles simply can't keep up with how I used to be. I can run without too much issue, but every now and then I'll just get really bad pain in the joints. I actually was running after a dog that escaped, and everything felt perfect, but all of a sudden I just lost balance and bit it. I was up and fine, but that had never happened before.
I think largely, if you didn't do it right as a teenager growing up, it doesn't matter how hard you work when you're older. Things can and will catch up to you in the end. Unfortunately.
Weight also plays a big factor. I used to be around 160, now hovering around 190. It might not seem a lot, but as athletes will attest to, if your comfortable walking weight is 175, that 15 lbs makes ALL the difference. Your joints are just working so much harder at simple tasks.
Some of these posts are making me feel young at 60. I've always been active so it has carried through to my current age. I had a worker at the house a couple weeks ago that thought i was in my mid forties just because of the way i ran around the house.
On vacay's we still have no problem driving 18 hours straight. My 40yo kids will only do half that before needing to stop for the night.
Still love to hike, bike, swim and travel. My wife and i find it hard to believe how old we are because we certainly don't act like it. My sister and her husband are 72 and they like to ride bicycles on mountain roads. You're never too old to get out there and tear it up.
Everybody ages differently. Also, any previous injuries to joints will most likely show up as arthritis in later years.
I worked in a Physical Therapy Dept at a hospital for 3 years, and believe me, I took notes! I asked questions...of the Physical Therapists and the Occupational Therapists. I saw alot of patients, my age and just a little older...back then 40's to 60's, dealing with pain and conditions I wasn't even aware of.
Much of what I learned back then I am able to use on myself now, for some pain relief and stretching.
"Keep moving!!!" was what I heard the most.
We are in our 70's our itinerary during the last ten months are as follows: 8 week road trip all over the west U.S. and Canada. Two each one week car trips to Florida, one week at the Gulf Cost of Texas. Fly two week trip to San Francisco one week was renting car driving up California and Oregon cost. We just returned from a two week flight to Boston and New York City, rented a car in Boston and spend some time at the cape. In October, we will be in Europe for four weeks. During our younger days and with children we did tent camping but never at a campground. I have a 2013 Ford Fusion that is only used for vacation travel, the rest of the time it sits in the garage fueled up ready to go at any moment we feel an itch. Age has never kept us from travel.
For a lot of us, we travel. Then kids come along and instead of traveling to exotic places, we travel to little league games and soccer matches and then one day our money travels to college. So there's a period of 25 to 30 years in there where other things come first. Now I'm traveling a bit more again, but 14 hours in the car doesn't work any more which means more overnight stops.
As others have said, it depends on the person. I know of someone who roller-skated for exercise when she was 81, another woman who would row on the lake to catch her dinner at age 86, and other woman (my mother) who ran in 5K runs until she was about 75 (she also traveled to many European countries by herself until just a couple of years ago, and she is now 82).
Just because you are over 70 does not mean you are OLD.
I spent three months hitchhiking around Europe and staying in youth hostels when I graduated from college forty five years ago. Now that I'm approaching 70, I still do a lot of traveling -- my husband and I went to New Zealand for three weeks in February and we are planning a three-week road trip to the East Coast this summer -- but we try to limit our driving days to six hours and we stay in motels with comfortable beds and private bathrooms.
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Now that I'm approaching 70, I still do a lot of traveling -- my husband and I went to New Zealand for three weeks in February and we are planning a three-week road trip to the East Coast this summer -- but we try to limit our driving days to six hours and we stay in motels with comfortable beds and private bathrooms.
